大象传媒

MY LIFE MY WAR

By
Bernard Hallas

Chapter 12a - Back on board

As I hoped it would be, the commanding officer was still Capt. Terry. Marching down the ranks, he singled me out. 鈥淚鈥檓 pleased to see you back Hallas.鈥� 鈥淭hank you sir, I can鈥檛 say the same. It was very pleasant in Chatham barracks.鈥� He smiled and said, 鈥淚 am sure you will soon get back in the same old routine. See me on board.鈥� After settling in, I reported to his office and he asked me what sort of a trip we had had, and then I dropped the news. 鈥淵ou will no doubt find out when you go through the records sir, that, included in your new intake, you have a complete King鈥檚 Squad straight from their passing out parade.

There was no time to split them up and send them to their various divisions.
He was so delighted, 鈥淥n Friday, Hallas, we are having a drill display with the United States Marines, you could not have brought me better news 鈥�. For the next few days, hidden away in the aircraft hangar, the ex King鈥檚 Squad were drilled, until they reached that peak of perfection for which they are renowned.

Come Friday, the arena was crowded. The U.S. Marines were, as the hosts, first on parade. They marched in from the corner gate led by their band and gave a very commendable display of arms drill and marching. The crowd were very generous with their applause and they marched off to the tune of their regimental march, 鈥淔rom the shores of Montezuma鈥�. It was now the turn of our King鈥檚 Squad. In full ceremonial, wearing the world famous white helmets and led by the Royal Marine band, they marched in from the opposite corner to the strains of 'A Life on the Ocean Wave'.

They put their hearts and souls into the following thirty minutes of immaculate drill and marched, without orders, and the crowd went crazy. Seats and cushions were thrown into the arena, as they marched off the parade. Unfortunately, it had its repercussions, for the few remaining days (for some reason or another), the sentries on the dockside gates suddenly became over officious and worked to the letter of the law.

Something or somebody had upset the U.S. Marines establishment. We couldn鈥檛 have cared less. The population of Bremerton were still giving us a wonderful time. The following day, we received a message that an absconder was under arrest in Victoria. Being one of the oldest serving members, two others and I were despatched to go on the overnight ferry and collect the body. Reporting to the local police, we were told that as it was Christmas Eve, he would not be releasing his prisoner until noon on Christmas Day.

He suggested that we went to the bank in the Main Street and join in the party. Arriving at the bank, we discovered that although open, it appeared to be empty, and the only sounds of revelry were coming from behind the huge circular door of the safe. Making our approach, we peered into the interior and were immediately grabbed and pulled in by a bevy of bank ladies. The Sheriff had had the presence of mind to phone through and explain that some English marines were in town and lost. We had a marvellous time; it was here that a young lady taught me how to make a 鈥淭om and Jerry鈥�.

You first take a warm mug, add a measure of rum, a measure of whisky, a large tablespoon of castor sugar and the white of an egg, then pour on very hot milk (not boiling) and then cover with a sprinkling of nutmeg. When the party broke up (I don鈥檛 know when that was), we were taken to different homes and found beds. The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of oatmeal pancakes covered with molasses, washed down with plenty of hot coffee, we said goodbye to our newfound friends, collected our prisoner and hung around until it was time for the all night ferry back to Bremerton.

To the Canadians, it was still festive time and no one appeared ready for bed as the ferry prepared to leave for America. What to do with the prisoner? The only solution was to take him with us to the bar, which was a large square bar in the centre of the ship, so, having obtained his promise to behave himself, and waiting until we were well out in midstream, we grabbed four seats and sat down for a pleasant voyage.

In line with the generous hospitality, which we were used to, the first round was 鈥極n the House鈥�. We were well into our second round of drinks when, lo and behold, who should walk into the bar but my 鈥楴emesis鈥� the Commander? No, that is the wrong word to use, at no time in the past had he used his position to exact retribution for my innocent relaxation of my official duties. It was just that he always appeared at the wrong moment and made me feel guilty. As usual, he just looked directly at us, looked away and as far as taking any direct action, forgot all about it. That, once again was Sir Charles Madden (and it was Christmas).

We were now almost ready to proceed back to the war zone. As part of our repairs we had taken the opportunity to replace our gun barrels that had become worn in our many operations. It had been a long, carefully planned operation, our spare barrels had been dispersed to many different dockyards for safety reasons and had to be collected and transported to the most convenient port. There, they were, because of the high risk involved and the size and weight of each barrel (100 Tons) carried on three different ships to Norfolk in Virginia. The United States Government provided special trucks to transport them to Bremerton. That in itself had been a tremendous undertaking. However, they all arrived safely and were quickly installed, too quickly for some of us.

The repairs now complete it was time for us to resume our wartime activities. Sadly making our last farewells, the day of departure arrived. All the dockyard workers had left the ship, dozens of small boats determined to follow us out of the dockyard, had to be cleared out of the way by the river police, and all of the hawsers connecting us to the shore had been cast off. Slowly we made our way to the main channel. It was difficult to hear the necessary orders with the noise of the farewells. Once again, sirens and ships鈥� hooters were sounding off and saying, 鈥淕oodbye and good luck,鈥� to a ship that the Americans had taken to their hearts.

It seemed that the whole population had turned out to line the seashore. The parting had been transformed into a ceremony. The ship鈥檚 company lined the decks, the Royal Marine Band played, 鈥淪hould Old Acquaintance,鈥� and the townsfolk sang their hearts out. Gradually, the sounds faded into the distance as we slowly entered the main channel and made our way northwards up Puget Sound and into Canadian waters, where once again as we passed Vancouver Island, the Canadians shouted their 鈥淕oodbyes鈥� as we entered the Pacific Ocean and made our way back to the war zone.

Escorted by two Canadian destroyers, we spent some time on exercises as we made our way towards Australia, and our ultimate destination in the Indian Ocean. Our stay in Australia was not to be a pleasant one, the Australians were now feeling threatened by an advancing Japanese Force and we had to accept the fact that while we had been enjoying our brief stay in Bremerton, we had tended to overlook the fact that the Japanese had carried out the murderous attack on Pearl Harbour, and in consequence, America was now at war with the Axis and mainly with Japan.

Australia wanted her troops brought back from the western desert to fight for their mother country and accused us of loafing around while their boys were fighting, I for one was glad to leave. During the course of this bad feeling there were the odd skirmishes in the bars and sometimes these turned out quite serious.

In one particular incident, one of our ship鈥檚 company was forced to defend himself, and to the dismay of the locals, he made a very good job of it. After disposing of his attackers, it took the local police force to restrain him, had they only known it, they had picked on the wrong man. Having survived the attack on the ill-fated battle cruiser, the Prince of Wales and eventually joining the Warspite, Johnny King, the well-known and popular Bantam Weight Champion, was in a very mean mood.

A few days later we were once again on the move making our way to Ceylon. Escorted by the ever present Canadian destroyers, we hoisted the 鈥淔lag鈥濃�� of Admiral Sir James Somerville and rejoined the fleet, then we sailed south west and eventually assembled in Addu Atoll, one of the Maldives which was to be our secret 鈥楬idey Hole鈥�.

Beside us, Somerville had four very old battleships, three aircraft carriers of varying sizes and a small force of cruisers and destroyers. It was not an impressive force when we later compared it with what the Japanese had at their disposal in the waters around India and Ceylon. During the weeks of April and May 1942, this force struck wherever they wished with the minimum opposition.

On April 5th, their bombers attacked the naval base of Colombo and sank one of our destroyers H.M.S. Tenedos and an armed Merchant Cruiser, the Hector. At the same time, other units attacked and sank two of our Cruisers, the Dorsetshire and the Cornwall. In that attack alone, more than 400 men died. Three or four days later a further attack by more than 50 strike aircraft pounced on the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Hermes and her escort, the Australian warship H.M.A.S. Vampire.

In less than half an hour, the Japanese planes dropped 40 500lb bombs on or near the carrier, and fatally wounded, she went down with all her guns firing. A matter of minutes later, the Vampire also succumbed and disappeared beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean; another 300 seamen died.

A few miles over the horizon, the British Merchantman the S.S. British Sergeant was bombed on to the rocks of Elephant Point and a Corvette and R.F.A. Ship, the Hollyhock and the Athelstane were two more victims, fifty-two men of the Hollyock went down with their ship.

It was a sad time for the Royal Navy. While this mass destruction was being carried out, the British battle fleet was fortunate enough to be hidden away amongst the Maldive group of islands, and thus escaped the attention of a much superior Japanese force. It was decided that this was to be the centre of our operations in the Indian Ocean.

Addu Atoll as its name implies, is a horseshoe shaped collection of islands, south west of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and almost on the equator. It鈥檚 shape and location was ideal as a future naval base and their Lords of the Admiralty ordered the MNBDO, (1) Mobile Naval Base Defence Operations (1) to the area to do the conversion. Mainly comprised of officers and men of the Royal Marines.

They did a first class job. The islands were joined together by a concrete runway, suitable for use by aircraft and the mouth of the horseshoe was protected by a boom defence system. The enclosed area was large enough to hold the fleet that we had at that time. However, as in all things, snags were encountered during the construction. As the palm trees were uprooted to clear the way, the inhabitants of the trees, small furry creatures that resembled marmosets were captured and kept as pets by the Marines.

Little did they know that they were holding potential time bombs in their hands. To a new visitor the islands would appear as small pieces of paradise floating in the Indian Ocean. Mile after mile of golden beaches, swaying palms and from the waters edge as far as the eye could see, a warm blue sea so beautiful it took your breath away, but to many of those Royal Marines working on the islands it was their 鈥淟ast Port of Call鈥�.

Their so-called pets were carrying what could only be described as a deadly plague. It was only after a number of suspicious deaths that the admiralty despatched a hospital ship to the islands and HMHS (Her Majesty鈥檚 Hospital Ship) Maine anchored off shore and provided some degree of safety for the troops.

For some it was too late, at a rough count it was stated that some thirty plus officers and men died on the island itself, and in various hospitals in Ceylon and Southern India.
In the published Roll of Honour 鈥淏id Them Rest in Peace鈥�, the official list of all those who died in the service of the Royal Marines, each man is assumed to have died in action, except where the entry is categorised with one of the following letters, i.e. (N) Natural causes鈥� (O) Other reasons. All the deaths of MNBDO (1) are categorised as (O) Other reasons, which leaves no answer to the question, 鈥淲hat other reasons?鈥�

Was there really a plague on the islands and if there was, is it still there waiting for the unwary traveller to 鈥淭he Paradise Islands鈥�? We may never know the answer. We can only go by the evidence of the men who were there and who are now slowly dying off.
Later that month we sailed for Bombay and a few days shore leave.

One of the most beautiful of Indian cities, it was spoiled by the vast number of beggars lying about the pavements, most of them crippled in one way or another and continually pleading for alms. It was explained to us later that 鈥榖egging鈥� in India, although necessary, due to the extreme poverty, was also, organised and was big business. Children in rags and more often than not, deformed in one way or another, were hired out to the professional beggars to create a more sympathetic attitude amongst the passers by. Once again it was necessary to provide the brothel patrol, only this time it was an entirely different system. The girls were displayed in shop windows.

One girl per window and in the corner, separated by a curtain, a ram shackle bed. As the prospective purchaser chose his 鈥榲ictim鈥�, he approached one of the many pimps who opened the small door, which separated each window and the client entered. The curtain was drawn and it was left to the imagination as to what transpired.

I have no idea as to the truth, but it was said quite openly that some of the girls had been sentenced to a fixed period of time in the council run brothel as a means of paying off their parents鈥� debts. If this was true, then once again the British Empire had something to be ashamed of. It was in Bombay that one of our military leaders, General Wavell who was the Commander in Chief in India, came on board and gave the assembled ship鈥檚 company some idea of what was happening. As he was one of the instigators of the fall of Singapore, it didn鈥檛 go down very well.

It was while we were still in Indian waters, that we heard of the magnificent victory of the American Marines at Midway Island. Important to us because it now meant that the Japanese fleet were confined to the Pacific and would no longer be a major threat in the Indian Ocean. No doubt this was one of the reasons that prompted the Admiral to take the Fleet to Mombassa and give some well-deserved leave to his ships鈥� companies. Situated on the east coast of South Africa, Mombassa was not at that time very impressive and as there was not a lot to do on shore, the executive officers arranged various sports fixtures, one of which was the famous cutter race.

Pr-BR

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